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COMINGANDGOING

Sunday, December 19, 2004; Page P01

ski report

Slippery Local Slopes

To all regional skiers trapped indoors due to unseasonably warm weather: The cold snap has freed you.

 In Virginia: Wintergreen Resort and Massanutten spent the colder days of last week blowing snow for their openings this weekend. Homestead and Bryce, for families and beginners, planned to open yesterday.

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 In Maryland: Natural snow began falling at Wisp last weekend, supplementing man-made snow for yesterday's scheduled opening of six to eight of the resort's 22 slopes.

 In West Virginia: The year's first big storm recently hit Snowshoe Mountain, dumping 15 inches. Snowshoe beat all the other regional ski resorts by opening Dec. 3 and currently boasts the most ski-worthy terrain: 35 of 57 trails were slated to be open this weekend. CanaanValley, Timberline and Winterplace were all slated to open by this weekend.

 In Pennsylvania: The five closest resorts -- Whitetail, Liberty Mountain, Ski Roundtop, Blue Knob and Seven Springs -- either opened late last week or were hoping to do so this weekend. New skiers: Mark your calendar for Jan. 6, when many Pennsylvania resorts offer $10 packages for a lesson and two hours of practice.

Congress brought relief to worried travelers recently by reinstating a rule that requires air carriers to accommodate passengers with tickets on defunct airlines. But how it applies to frequent-flier tickets remains murky.

The loosely worded rule has been a work in progress since it was first passed in the aftermath of 9/11. Its requirement that airlines transport stranded passengers "to the extent practicable" created considerable confusion when two small airlines, Vanguard and National, went belly-up in 2002. Some carriers assessed a $100 administrative fee. Some refused to permit standby travel. The U.S. Department of Transportation tried to clear up the uncertainty by issuing clarifications: